Analysis of bookkeeping as a branch of general education (1842)

1

Thomas Jones* NEW YORK CITY
ANALYSIS OF BOOKKEEPING AS A BRANCH OF GENERAL EDUCATION (1842)
Abstract: These thoughts of an early American accounting author reflect the frus-trations encountered in attempting to establish the process of teaching account keeping within the general scheme of education. This item by Jones first appeared in 1842 as an article in a New York business periodical. It represents one of the first and most complete examples of ante-bellum American accounting thought as depicted in the financial press of that era.
There is perhaps no department of commercial education that claims so urgently the serious attention of the mercantile community as that of bookkeeping. We enter upon the subject with a full knowledge of the obstinate prejudice that has hitherto withstood all efforts towards promoting a general system of school instruction in the arrangement of accounts. Wherever the subject has been advanced, we have, until within a short period, uniformly heard the one reply, "Bookkeeping can only be acquired by practice; you may teach a little theory, but the practice is so different, that we have more trouble with a beginner, who has been taught in school, than with one who has never studied it." Are we then to adopt the con-clusions to which these premises must inevitably drive us? Of the number of clerks employed in business, perhaps about one in ten has opportunity of practice; are we to conclude that the other nine tenths have no remedy for ignorance with regard to a subject which so deeply concerns their interests? Are that portion who are to be-come merchants to despair of attaining the necessary knowledge of
•Thomas Jones (1804-1889) was a pioneer American accounting teacher and text writer. He has been noted for being an early advocate of the need to view the accounting process as directed toward the production of financial reports — an emphasis which has caused him to be identified as the first "modern" American accounting writer.
This article appeared in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, (December, 1842, pp. 513-526) a monthly business periodical published in New York City. It is one of the earliest known accounting articles found in American business literature. For a study of Jones' works see "The Contributions of Thomas Jones and Benjamin Franklin Foster" by H. P. Hughes, in the Bicentennial Edition of Collected Papers, American Accounting Association Southeast-Regional Group, 1976, pp. 93-98.